Best Hillary Clinton Facts about Life and Politics

Hillary Clinton is a lawyer, politician, author, diplomat, and spokesperson who served as the First Lady of the United States of America between 1993 and 2001.She is well known for women and children’s rights advocacy throughout her service in the public office.

Net Worth:

55 Million $

Age:

71 Years

Born:

October 26, 1947

Country of Origin:

United States Of America

Source Of Wealth:

American politician, diplomat, lawyer, writer, and public speaker

Spouse:

Bill Clinton ( m. 1975)

Children:

1

Last Updated:

2018

Short Bio

From a tender age, Clinton displayed leadership skills as she leads a gang of children within her estate guiding them in what she needed to be done.

Throughout her school life, she served as a leader and advocated for relativism in many situations.

She knew what she wanted and stood for it, sometimes driving her point a little harder than some people could take.

Clinton didn’t let anyone put her down while she was in school, not even senior people in politics who sometimes took students’ views for granted. She voiced her mind and made it clear that everyone was important regardless of their age, race or beliefs.

There were clear signs that she would take a senior position in the American government, it didn’t surprise many when she became a senator or even vied for the presidential seat. She once said, “I’ve always been intrigued by the Senate, and admired many of the people who have served there.”

She didn’t let being a woman get in her way of pursuing her dreams; she became the first lady to seek various seats that were first considered as no-go-zone for women. She is a real symbol of a daring lady!

Career

Since her years in high school, Clinton’s political and leadership ambitions were clear. She volunteered to campaign for a Republican, Barry Goldwater during the US presidential election in 1964.

At Wellesley College, she was elected as the president of Young Republicans club in her freshmen year and class representative to student government as a sophomore.

Clinton led a 2-day strike after civil rights leader and minister, Martin Luther King Jr. whom she had met briefly in at a speech in 1962 were assassinated.

It was clear she valued everyone regardless of their political affiliations. She worked with a team of Wellesley black students to recruit more black students.

In 1968, she became the president of Wellesley College Government Association and led until early 1969.

Though she campaigned for a Democrat in New Hampshire and was seen as leaning towards the party, she honored her Republic connections in 1968 by attending a Republican conference as assigned by her professor.

While attending the conference, she disapproved of some remarks made, deeming them as disguised racist messages. She made up her mind to exit the Republican Party for good. Later in life, she would say, “I sometimes think that I didn’t leave the Republican Party, as much as it left me.”

After graduating from Wellesley, Clinton went to Yale Law School where she was recruited by a political advisor to work for the 1970 campaign of the US Senate in Connecticut. She also took the time to research on education, health and housing issues affecting migrant workers while under a grant to work at Washington Research Project.

These were areas she had a deep interest in, with plans to make them better.

In the second year, she worked as a research assistant at Yale Child Study Center and took child abuse cases at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Clinton also gave free legal advice to the less privileged as a volunteer at New Haven Legal Services.

Breaking Boundaries

Clinton became a staff member of an impeachment inquiry in Washington D.C where she was involved in the research of impeachment processes that lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

With such stamina in law and politics, those who worked around Clinton felt she had the potential to become a senator or president in future.

When she sat for the District of Columbia bar examination, Clinton didn’t perform well, but she passed the Arkansas exam. She chose to move to Arkansas where she became the second female lecturer in University of Arkansas’ School of Law in August 1974.

In 1976, Clinton shifted to Indianapolis for a short while in efforts to coordinate presidential run for Jimmy Carter; he won. Back in Arkansas, she co-founded Arkansas Advocates for children and families, a non-profit activist organization in 1977.

She joined Rose Law Firm in February 1977 where she focused on intellectual property law while volunteered in child advocacy keeping off any work in court. Clinton became the first female partner at the law firm in 1979.

Having campaigned for President Jimmy Carter, he appointed her to the board of Legal Services Corporation, a non-profit organization that ensured equal access to justice under the law in 1978. She became the first female chairperson and served until late 1981.

Clinton became Arkansas’ First Lady in January 1979 when her husband was elected the Governor of Arkansas engaging her in the Rural Health Advisory Committee. This role ended in 1981 when he lost the seat to a Republican in November 1980 elections. By then, she earned a higher salary than him due to her work at Rose Law Firm.

In 1983, when her husband retook the governorship, Clinton assumed her former position but was engaged in the task force to reform Arkansas’ public education.

Her efforts brought about various changes like compulsory testing of teachers and introduced Arkansas’ Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth. While her engagement was political, she continued to work with Rose Law Firm though for a few hours.

Besides serving in several boards for non-profit organizations while in the position of Arkansas’ First Lady, Clinton also sat in corporate boards in companies like Wal-Mart, a chain store hypermarket and Lafarge, an industrial company specializing in construction products.

Getting Close to the Dream

In 1993, Clinton became First Lady when her husband was elected as the 42nd President of America. As her husband entered the White House, she insisted on having her office in the West Wing close to his office.

With a postgraduate degree and her profession, she was viewed as the most empowered First Lady in America’s history. This also gave her the ability to vet those employed in the new administration, an act that was criticized by various bodies while accepted by others.

Throughout her time as America’s First Lady, Clinton focused more on healthcare and issues regarding women and children. On health care, she campaigned for the immunization of children against childhood diseases nationwide and encouraged women to go for breast cancer screening.

Clinton’s campaign against practices that abused women was not restricted to America, and she intended for her message to be heard all over the world. In September 1995, she took a stand against such abusive practices during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

Realizing that women in many countries were treated as if they had lesser or no rights, she discussed the matter before the attending the conference.

Without compromising, she told them,

“It is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights. If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.”

By speaking out, she empowered women then and in the years that followed.
Despite her efforts to empower women, Clinton found herself entangled in a situation where her husband was accused of having an extramarital affair with a 20-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Though the act took place between 1995 and 1997, the details began to unveil in 1998.

At first, he denied the allegations causing her to point fingers at his political enemies. When evidence against him was provided, she gave a statement in public an indication of her commitment to their marriage. She honored her words, “You don’t walk away if you love someone. You help the person.”

Although in private, it was said she was angry about it; her public reaction caused mixed reaction amongst the women who idolized her.

By the time she and her husband left White House in 2001, the Lewinsky scandal and other previous cases left them broke and in debt from the hefty legal fees.

Leading Her Pack

While her husband left public office, Clinton braced herself to return to public office as a senator under President George W. Bush’s administration in 2001. To enable her ace the Senate seat in New York, the couple bought a home in Chappaqua, New York in September 1999 giving her residence in the state.

In November 2000 she won the election against her Republican counterpart with 55 percent of the vote and was sworn to office on January 3, 2001. She supported Bush’s administration on specific foreign policies like the vote for the resolution of Iraq war which she later opposed.

In 2003, Clinton began preparing for potential presidential candidacy. In 2008, Clinton ran against Illinois Senator Barack Obama for party primaries in preparation to ace the presidential nomination. She won more primaries and delegates than any other lady who had tried for the position in America but lost the presidential nomination by a narrow difference.

When President Obama assumed office, despite not wanting to leave Senate, Clinton accepted to serve as U.S. Secretary of State in November 2008. She became the 67th U.S. Secretary of State after taking an oath of office on January 21, 2009. No other former first lady had served in United States Cabinet before.

While keeping her focus on good governance, Clinton maintained an excellent working relationship with Obama and his administration.

She played a significant role in the decision to eliminate Osama bin Laden, the founder of the Al-Qaeda organization that conducted the September 11, 2001 bomb attack in America. She also ensured that the photos of his body were not leaked to the public.

In March 2011, Clinton told Obama she had no intention of returning to her position in the event he got re-elected for another term. Her health had troubled her on several occasions, making her consider taking a break. Upon his return to office in 2009, he appointed Senator John Kerry as Clinton’s successor.

One Last Shot

Being out of public office, Clinton began focusing on other sources of income. From the 30 years, she had served in the public office; she realized she had gathered a lot of experience for her private life.

She began to write new biographies and gave speeches where she received up to $225,000. At the time, she didn’t charge for the statements but considered them as part of her charitable work.

Between 2009 when she left public office until 2015 when she expressed a desire to run for the presidency, she made $11 million from the private work.

Early 2015, Clinton announced her desire to run for the presidency in the 2016 election. She won the party primaries within the Democratic Party and was named the party presidential nominee. Clinton chose Senator Tim Michael Kaine to become her running mate and was supported by her party.

Returning the favor, Obama endorsed her as his choice of president angering her Republican opponent Donald Trump, a , and TV personality.

All through the early campaigns in 2016, she stayed ahead and won the popular vote by a 2.1 percent margin against Trump. But by the time election took place, Trump got a majority of the votes. Clinton conceded defeat and called upon her supporters to give him a chance to lead with an open mind. She even attended his inauguration on January 20, 2017.

Other Avenues of Leadership

In April 2017, she told the public that she had no intention of returning to public office. Instead, she would focus on her private life.

In the first week of August 2018, Clinton told media she would executive produce a TV series based on Elaine Weiss book, ‘The Woman’s Hour’ featuring the activism that led to women’s right to vote. She would work with Steven Spielberg, an American filmmaker. She also said she would take a guest role in the fifth season premiere of ‘Madam Secretary,’ a political drama aired by CBS.

Within the same month, Clinton encouraged a sixth-grade girl from Maryland who was punished when she insisted on kneeling while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in class. She tweeted, “It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you are 11! Keep up the good work Mariana.”

Whether in public office or not, Clinton remains one of the most influential women in the world.

Philanthropy

From 2001 until 2015, Clinton and her husband gave $23.2 million to charities according to their tax returns; this is the period after her husband left public office.

The donations were made through the Clinton Family Foundation, which in turn passed the money to other non-profit organizations.

Some of the organizations that benefited from the contribution were groups in Arkansas and significant charities in America.

Clinton is also a part of Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation where she gave 24 percent in personal donations. Unlike the other foundation, this one does charitable works and collects donations from other donors besides her family.

Net Worth

After leaving the public office, Clinton made $9 million in speaking engagements in 2013 and 2014 while in 2015, she earned $1 million from speaking and $3 million from writing.

From her book, Hard Choices published by Simon & Schuster, she received over $5 million in royalties between 2014 and mid-2015.

She made most of her wealth after she left public office with various organizations quoting her net worth at $45 million in October 2017 and $55 million as of mid-2018.

The Story of Hillary Clinton

Early Life

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, the USA as the first born in a family of three to Dorothy Howell, a homemaker and Hugh Rodham who worked in a small textile company. She grew up in a United Methodist family.

At three years of age, her family moved to the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge where she was schooled. Though a tomboy, she performed well in school.

She was a competitive leader and more of a teachers’ pet. She led an active life at school; she was a Brownie, a Girl Scout, a swimmer and softball player.

Clinton attended Maine East High School where she participated in the student council and was elected as the class vice president during her junior year. She lost in the class president election during her senior year against two boys.

Together with other students, Clinton was transferred to Maine South High School in her senior year where she graduated among the top 5 percent of her class in 1965. She was voted ‘most likely to succeed’ and was a National Merit Finalist.

Influenced by the advantages of single-sex education and the fact that a high school teacher she respected was an alumna, Clinton opted to join Wellesley College to pursue political science in 1965.

Throughout her college life, she held one or the other leadership position; she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts honors in Political science in 1969. She proceeded to Yale Law School where she earned Juris Doctor Degree upon graduating in 1973.

Personal Life

Hillary Clinton met Bill Clinton in the spring of 1971; he was studying law at Yale.

After living together in California, he proposed to her after her graduation from Yale. She turned him down since she wasn’t sure she wanted to build her future with him.

After two years of persuading her, he married her on October 11, 1975, and got their only child, Chelsea in 1980.

When she was in her freshman year in Wellesley, she met and dated a Harvard Junior for two years. He complimented her of her beauty, ability to hold a great conversation and her dancing moves.

National Law Journal named Clinton one of the most influential lawyers in America in 1988 and 1991. She also won the Grammy Award in 1997 for Best Spoken Album for her book, ‘It takes a village’ in honor of audio versions of great written work. She became the first First lady to win a Grammy.

In 2016, Guardian Newspaper named her The Person of the Year. As far as her life is concerned, she believes, “You have to be true to yourself.” She has been.